Woman Missing for 7 Years Found Dead Under Junk

Cleaning crew finds bones

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Boxes of hoarded junk packed Eunice Workman's house from floor to ceiling.

Updated at 12:59 AM PDT on Friday, Mar 27, 2009

When Eunice Workman disappeared seven years ago, a search was launched but turned up nothing.

Now investigators believe they found the elderly woman's bones right inside her own home.

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Investigators were called to a home in the 700 block of 47th Street in Oakland at about 8 p.m. Wednesday where workers hired to clean an abandoned home had discovered a cache of human bones that are now believed to Workman's, an officer from the Oakland Police Department said.

In a scene reminiscent of the infamous Collyer brothers, the home was reportedly filled from floor to ceiling with hoarded belongings. Preliminary reports indicate the victim may have died by being crushed or trapped by collected piles of junk, and was simply never found, police said.

Her children reported her as missing several years ago and people looked for her but she was never found. The thought was that she might have left town.

Her next door neighbor tells NBC Bay Area that she was nice and quiet but a little eccentric given the amount of junk she had collected inside her home.

The remains have not yet been officially identified, an Alameda County coroner said Thursday morning, though Oakland police say first evidence points toward the missing woman.